See other Religion Articles
Title: Americans believe in God -- and hell, UFOs, witches, astrology: poll (and miracles - we could use one)
Source:
Raw Story
URL Source: http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Americ ... n_God_and_hell_U_12042007.html
Published: Dec 4, 2007
Author: AFP
Post Date: 2007-12-04 17:15:46 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 4515
Comments: 110
An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God and signicant numbers also think that UFOs, the devil and ghosts exist, a poll showed Tuesday. The survey by Harris Online showed that 82 percent of adult Americans believe in God and a slightly smaller percentage -- 79 percent -- believe in miracles. More than 70 percent of the 2,455 adults surveyed between November 7 and 13 said they believe in heaven and angels, while more than six in 10 said they believed in hell and the devil. Almost equal numbers said they believe in Darwin's theory of evolution (42 percent) -- the belief that populations evolve over time through natural selection -- and creationism (39 percent) -- the theory that God created mankind. Seventy percent of Americans said they were very (21 percent) or somewhat (49 percent) religious, while around one-third of those polled also said they believe in UFOs, witches and astrology.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 79.
#21. To: robin, Alan Chapman, TwentyTwelve, all (#0)
I am short on time at the moment so I don't have time for a detailed deconstruction but note the following: By conflating all of these together it is an assertion of equivalence i.e., that UFOs=Witches=Astrology. When you see that kind of false reasoning you can know that the author is dishonest or is working PsyOps. Which of those has a substantial body of objective evidence and credible witnesses? UFOs. Which of those has the government consistently attacked via derision and their various operatives such as Michael Schermer? UFOs. Why? Because it is a world view shifting datum which holds the potential to upset the 1984 society that is being built. The "Septics" Society and others of their ilk, such as the less than amazing Randi, have over and over again been shown to lie, use strawmen, and character assassination to advance their agenda of defending the official paradigm.
There isn't a shred of evidence of visitation by aliens in flying saucers. Even with the proliferation of billions of cameras, camera phones, and video cameras there still isn't any compelling evidence. All of those old b/w photos of flying saucers are nothing but people tossing pie pans and hub caps into the air. Witnesses are always referred to as credible. They're often unsure of what they've seen. Many have conflicting testimony. Michael Shermer is a government operative? That's laughable. He and Randi have done outstanding work exposing charlatans and quacks. I especially like the way Randi exposed Uri Geller, Peter Popoff, and James Hydrick (who later confessed to being a fraud).
In fact Alan, take a peek at post 22 while you're at it...
On June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold claimed that he'd seen nine "crescent shaped" aircraft near Mount Rainier. He said they reminded him of saucers skimming over water. An editor of the Eastern Oregonian reported that Arnold saw "round" objects. Other reports noted "disc-shaped" objects. Within a few weeks, there were hundreds of reports nationwide of sightings of flying "saucers." It's interesting how sightings become contagious. The U.S. military built and tested many flying wings during the 1940s. Here's the Northrop N-1M. It's maiden flight was in 1941. The Germans also built flying wings. Where do people know about flying saucers? Why were there a bunch of flying saucer and alien invasion movies made in the 1950s? Science-fiction magazines from the 1920s: Orson Welles' 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds
Let me guess, you're going to try to tell me these are migrating birds, right?
Birds are precisely what those are, and birds are probably what the folks in Farmington saw. The behavior they witnessed perfectly describes bird behavior.
Birds are precisely what those are Hmmm, round birds without wings that glow and dart around at approximately 10,000 feet. Yep. , and birds are probably what the folks in Farmington saw. The behavior they witnessed perfectly describes bird behavior. According to witnesses, the saucer shaped objects moved at 1000 mph and in right angles, with several apparently engaged in what seemed like a "dog fight". Yeah, birds. Uh huh.
You can tell the altitude of those birds just from watching the video? They look round for several reasons. They're far away and each one takes up only a few pixels in the image. They blur and smear when he zooms in. If you understand the way digital compression works, adjacent pixels are averaged to give a smoother picture and reduce pixelation. It's called anti-aliasing. They're not perfectly spherical. If you look closely you can see that they have greater width than height. They didn't look to me like they were glowing. They looked white like seagulls. According to witnesses, the saucer shaped objects moved at 1000 mph and in right angles, with several apparently engaged in what seemed like a "dog fight". When viewed from the ground, birds may appear to be moving at high speed when passing in front of clouds. Move your hand quickly in front of your face while looking at something in the distance. Wow, your hand must've moved at thousands of miles per hour! Birds can make high speed turns which might look like right angles. They can also ascend very quickly when entering columns of warm air. I think the Farmington residents had too much to drink and took a little creative license when telling their story. You know, the one that got away is always ten times bigger in the imagination than it is in reality.
I think your head is up in the clouds. And I see you're resorting to the "they were drunk" comments. How original. Yeah, the whole town was cocked and thought they saw saucer shaped craft performing instantaneous 90 degree manuevers while flying at extremely high speeds, where it was really just a bunch of birds. I'm GW Bush, but don't tell anyone, as they might be drunk and think I'm Dick Cheney.
One of the things I've noticed about the hangers on of such as the "Septics" Society, PSICOP, and such is that they are totally unmoved by evidence. That's why I generally don't argue with them (although they are fun to needle by dissecting their illogic and pointing out how closed minded they are). Their mind is made up and they do not want to be confused by no steenking evidence. Regardless of the witness, or any other evidence produced, it is all dismissed preemptorily with a wave of the rhetorical hand, and done so without examination. After all they already know it does not and cannot exist and so there is no reason to make an objective examination of the MOUNTAINS of evidence. It might upset their digestion to be confronted with facts and observations that cannot be summarily dismissed. Of course to use the logic of the septics one could categorically deny the existence of atoms. After all you cannot see them and no one has ever photographed one. We have impact targets in particle accelerators but that is obviously faked since we all know that you cannot see them they therefore do not exist. As, I believe it was you, was commented earlier we live in an Island Galaxy that literally has billions of star systems and likely billions of habitable planets. To think we are alone and at the pinnacle of creation, living in splendid isolation the only inhabited planet in all of the macrocosmic all that has life and the conditions to support it requires a leap of faith greater than someone who finds evidences of the hand of creation in the great evolutionary jumps, which the septics cannot explain, which are evidenced in the known fossil record. As well one might point out that a military pilot that makes a public report of a UFO is subject to a 10,000 dollar fine and ten years in jail. Why would the government put forth such a regulation for something that does not exist? If they do not exist then the pilot must obviously be delusionally insane and should not be allowed anywhere near a high performance aircraft. Yet that is not the tack taken. Instead pilots are told to shut up and not talk about it under threats of draconian punishment. For something that does not exist?
It's sort of like those that insisted the earth was flat because if it were round we'd fall off. It's what they believe, and NO amount of evidence will change their minds.
Exactly - the septics are the modern "Flat Earth Society". I would have less trouble with their antics if they were honest but they are not. They have an agenda that they support with absolute faith and like any fanatic will brook no theories which run contrary to their point of view. They are like the people who closed the Patent Office in the 1880's because everything that could be invented had already been invented. They were the people at Kittyhawk making "catcalls" at those crazy Wright Brothers. "If man were meant to fly God would have given him wings."
Have you ever looked over the MAJESTIC 12 documents?
No, have not. I am familiar with it but have not read them. Thanks for the link. My late mother was quite a bug on UFOs and so I was exposed to it from an early age - it is not an area I spend a lot of time reading in but do find it interesting. I believe that an objective investigator that actually takes the time to sift through the evidence can reach no other conclusion, after one has eliminated the hoaxes and questionable incidents, that there is a solid core of evidence that suggests that we are, and have been for a long time, being visited by one or more advanced cultures. Probably to come and look at those crazy primitives on Earth.
Probably to come and look at those crazy primitives on Earth. I think there are several possibilities; 1) There are several alien races here from other star systems, each with their own reason for being here, some benevolent, some not. 2) They are time travelers from our future here to observe history, or perhaps even to MODIFY history (if that is even possible given the concept of paradoxes). 3) They are interdimensional travelers, here for unknown reasons. 4) They are from this solar system, where our civilization is a remnant of their own, where a catrostrophic disaster on the planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter used to be the home of our ancestors. They settled elsewhere, and we settled here and lost our knowledge over time somehow. 5) Any combination of the above.
I believe, just based on the different reports I've read, as well as directions pointed at by some of our more advanced cosmological thinking, that some combination of 1) and 3) most likely. Given the governments propensity for setting false trails, and use of shills etc., that some of the "hoaxes" were done intentionally to have something to point at. It is like the Crop Circle phenomena - even after the death of the two drunks paraded out as the perps the phenomena continues. So, that either proves life after death, which the septics deny, or that they weren't done by the two drunks.
I tend to also think 2) might be true, as according to modern physics involving space time, ring singularities could create doorways to past and future universes.
With my limited knowledge I cannot rule it out. The problem of course with time travel is the paradoxes - as you point out. As well time, as we use the term, is an artificial construct. It is the concept that our linear sequential existence represents some qauntifiable contiguous physical universe phenomena. It is still an ill defined concept. Yes we can measure the ticks on a clock and perceive that they have some duration and we use them as a unit of measure of the progression of events in the physical universe. However, it is yet to be seen if our current understanding and conceptualization can be translated into a principle that can be applied to the construction of a functioning "time machine".
#82. To: Original_Intent (#79)
Much additional information can be found by looking up the term "ring singularity kerr time travel"
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest "...while around one-third of those polled also said they believe in UFOs, witches and astrology."
#25. To: Original_Intent (#21)
#27. To: Alan Chapman, Original_Intent (#25)
#32. To: FormerLurker (#27)
#38. To: Alan Chapman (#32)
#52. To: FormerLurker (#38)
#53. To: Alan Chapman (#52)
#55. To: FormerLurker (#53)
#56. To: Alan Chapman (#55)
(Edited)
When viewed from the ground, birds may appear to be moving at high speed when passing in front of clouds.
#59. To: FormerLurker, Alan Chapman, TwentyTwelve, Wudidiz, all (#56)
#61. To: Original_Intent (#59)
As, I believe it was you, was commented earlier we live in an Island Galaxy that literally has billions of star systems and likely billions of habitable planets. To think we are alone and at the pinnacle of creation, living in splendid isolation the only inhabited planet in all of the macrocosmic all that has life and the conditions to support it requires a leap of faith greater than someone who finds evidences of the hand of creation in the great evolutionary jumps, which the septics cannot explain, which are evidenced in the known fossil record.
#64. To: FormerLurker (#61)
It's sort of like those that insisted the earth was flat because if it were round we'd fall off. It's what they believe, and NO amount of evidence will change their minds.
#66. To: Original_Intent (#64)
#69. To: FormerLurker (#66)
#72. To: Original_Intent (#69)
...there is a solid core of evidence that suggests that we are, and have been for a long time, being visited by one or more advanced cultures.
#73. To: FormerLurker (#72)
#76. To: Original_Intent (#73)
I believe, just based on the different reports I've read, as well as directions pointed at by some of our more advanced cosmological thinking, that some combination of 1) and 3) most likely.
#79. To: FormerLurker (#76)
I tend to also think 2) might be true, as according to modern physics involving space time, ring singularities could create doorways to past and future universes.
Replies to Comment # 79.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 79.